Dreamworks Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment have unveiled details about the August release of the thriller Disturbia on DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray Disc. After his father’s accidental ...

Syntax-Brillian joined the huge-screen LCD club today at Infocomm with its Olevia 665i 1080p LCD TV (similar model pictured above), featuring a big ol' 65-inch screen and that Silicon Optics Realta HQV video processor that's captured the hearts of many a TV watcher. That's a great little piece of electronics to have around if you're scaling up standard definition video from DVDs into that much-coveted 1080p format. Heck, it's occupying space in all the toniest receivers, Blu-ray and HD DVD players, so it must be good.

But then, we were never fans of upscaling anyway, even if it does have 10-bit video processing, pixel-by-pixel noise reduction and motion adaptive video de-interlacing. Phooey. If upscaling is so goddamn great, why go to all the trouble of actually having 1080p HDTV sources?
Anyway, we do happen to like 65-inch screens displaying genuine (not upscaled, but the real thing) 1080p video, so this would be a prime candidate for our consideration, especially...

Blockbuster's decision to support Blu-ray in all of its 1,450 stores is having a bigger impact than it seems. A tipster at an unnamed retailer tells us they've had more HD DVD player orders cancelled over the last few days than they've seen over the entire lifecycle. The kicker? All of them were cancelled because of the Blockbuster announcement.
Not only that, new sales of HD DVD players are nonexistent, with Blu-ray being the only things moving now.
The more tech savvy of us rent our stuff on Netflix or Blockbuster Online (which is still supporting both formats for now), but this announcement—covered in many mainstream media sources—had a big impact on people who actually rent at Blockbuster.
Any of you tipsters working at other retail outlets see something similar? Email us if you have. – Jason Chen
Thanks tipster!

Filed under: HDTV, Storage

Even at this stage in the game, there aren't many drives out there sporting both logos, but LG's HL-DT-ST BD-RE GGW-H10N 1.01 drive -- better known as the Super Multi Blue to the layperson -- has the Blu-ray and HD DVD logos sitting up front in perfect harmony. Announced at this year's CES, the drive can playback Blu-ray, DVD and HD DVD media, along with 4x recording and even rewriting of Blu-ray Discs. Now that the drive is finally out, CDRinfo has a ridiculously extensive review that really puts the $1,200 lens menagerie through its paces. In all, the dual playback makes this one a winner, and the Blu-ray, DVD and CD recordings turned out quite well to boot. The error correction for CD and DVDs is a bit lacking, but we're guessing anyone willing to fork over this much cash for a drive -- or crazy enough to read this whole review -- has bigger fish to fry.

[Thanks, Macris A] 
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Office...

Filed under: HDTV, Laptops, Storage
As promised, Toshiba is giving its HD DVD a push into the mainstream by including drives in its more pedestrian laptop models. Today Toshiba has the Satellite P205, Satellite X205, Qosmio F45 and Qosmio G45 getting that special treatment, with prices ranging from $1,449 to $3,199 -- not quite "cheap," but it'll do for now. The Qosmio G45 also has the special distinction of being the first US laptop to include a writeable HD DVD drive. All of the laptops run 17-inch screens except for the 15.4-inch F45. The P205 is the only one of the bunch to leave out HDMI. Just for kicks, Toshiba is also tossing in Dolby Home Theater sound in the Qosmios and the X205, while a bunch of other models, including the P205, are getting Dolby Sound Room tech. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait for fall to get the rest of the specs and pricing info. Hopefully HD DVD is doing a little better in the format war by then. 
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments...

While most of us have had no retail outlet for high definition discs, consumers at 250 test stores for Blockbuster have had access to HD DVD and Blu-ray discs. After some test marketing, the retail ...

Blockbuster customers prefer Blu-Ray over HD DVD media U.S. video rental chain Blockbuster has said in a statement that their customers tend to prefer Blu-Ray based media over HD DVD. Blockbuster added that they are now going to expand their inventory of these high definition media discs to a total of 1,700 stores up from 250. This is [...]

Blog: Blockbuster Inc. announced on Monday that it would rent only Blu-ray discs and not HD DVDs, in its 1,700 company-owned stores.

After testing out both Blu-ray and HD DVD rentals in 250 of its 1,450 stores, movie rental chain Blockbuster has gone with Blu-ray as the format its going to widely deploy next month. The decision comes as customers in those 250 stores chose Blu-ray 70% of the time, obviously more than doubling the amount of HD DVDs rented. That's a pretty big margin this early in the format war.
However, HD DVD die hards have a slight bit of hope left. Blockbuster will still continue renting HD DVDs in the original 250 locations, so there could be a possibility in changing the decision if customers start renting a lot more of the HD discs or studios start pumping out a lot more movies on that format. We wouldn't count on it. – Jason Chen
Blockbuster to favor Blu-ray high-definition discs over rival HD DVD format [Pittsburgh Live]

Filed under: HDTV
In a huge blow to Toshiba, Universal, and the rest of the HD DVD devotees, rental giant Blockbuster has decided to stock only Blu-ray discs in the vast majority of its nationwide locations, although HD DVD titles will continue to be offered online and in the 250 (out of 1,450) stores that have been testing both formats since last year. Blockbuster VP Matthew Smith revealed to the AP that the decision to go with Blu-ray -- which will reportedly be announced tomorrow -- stemmed from an overwhelming customer preference for those titles in the test markets, accounting for over 70% of all HD discs rented. Interestingly enough, it seems that content -- and not price -- was the deciding factor for consumers, with Blu-ray-only hits such as the Spiderman and Pirates of the Caribbean films apparently outmatching equivalent HD DVD exclusives. While it's still a little too soon to declare Blu-ray the outright winner, this Blockbuster decision only contributes to the momentum ...